Michael Eck

By Michael Eck LATHAM – A middle-aged couple arguing over a child’s impending nuptials in a swank hotel room. It must be Neil Simon, but it’s not. Donna de Matteo’s comedy “Our Son’s Wedding” veers from Simon in important ways. For one, it consistently blends in a poignancy deeper than Simon can usually muster. For […]
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By Michael Eck TROY – There’s a gem of a show in Troy right now. The Theatre Institute at Sage is presenting Michael Musial’s production of “The Mystery of Edwin Drood” and it’s a wonderful bit of silliness waiting to be enjoyed by theater fans of every stripe. “Drood,” written by pop singer Rupert Holmes, […]
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By Michael Eck SCHENECTADY – One common way to start a review is to unequivocally claim that such and such actor is such and such character, implying that that the artist has so successfully subsumed his or herself as to become someone else. Got it? Well, Cathy Rigby is Peter Pan. It even says so […]
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By Michael Eck SCHENECTADY – “You can’t handle the truth.” It’s the gimme line from “A Few Good Men,” but it would function just as well in the similarly-oriented “A Soldier’s Play.” The latter, a Pulitzer Prize-winning piece by Charles H. Fuller, is now on view at Proctors’ Fenimore Gallery, in an intriguing Classic Theatre […]
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By Michael Eck ALBANY – It was worth the wait. The Waterboys formed in Ireland in 1983, but waited until Tuesday night to make their debut in Albany. It was worth the wait. The show at The Linda, announced just over a week ago, sold out quickly, and patrons arriving sans tickets Tuesday were left […]
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By Michael Eck Singer Helen Reddy wasn’t kidding when she told the world that her return to the stage wouldn’t amount to a greatest hits tour. Reddy took a decade off from her music career, beginning in 2002, and when she started hitting the road again earlier this year, she promised to sing the songs […]
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By Michael Eck TROY – Tall trees grew out of the stage at the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall Wednesday night, quite a sight indeed. The quartet of pines constituted the forest of Arden for The Acting Company’s traveling production of William Shakespeare’s “As You Like It.” The play, written at the dawn of the […]
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By Michael Eck CAMBRIDGE – It’s unfair to compare one artist to another, and yet just such comparisons have been the stuff of criticism for centuries. Kevin McGuire left an almost indelible imprint on the Theater Company at Hubbard Hall. He didn’t just create the company, but he also defined it for a decade, often […]
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By Michael Eck COHOES – Wet snow and hot jive don’t mix well, hence a very thin house for the opening night of “Five Guys Named Moe” at the Cohoes Music Hall. Too bad, too, because this is a show that cries out for a roomful of swinging folks. Structurally, “Five Guys Named Moe” is […]
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By Michael Eck ALBANY – Jane Austen is all the rage lately at Capital Repertory Theatre. Last fall, the downtown troupe presented “a romantic deconstruction” of Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice,” retitled “Pride @ Prejudice.” Now, the company is offering the world premiere of a new musical, “Single Girls Guide,” based on Austen’s “Emma,” her fifth […]
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